Bridgeport ethics bill is DOA

Updated 11:14 pm, Thursday, April 25, 2013

HARTFORD -- A long-shot bill that would prohibit Bridgeport municipal employees from serving on the City Council is dead.

Speaker of the House J. Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden, says there's not enough support within the Bridgeport delegation, let alone the 99-member House majority, to pull it up from among the hundreds of bills awaiting debate on the House calendar.

The bill's chief proponent, sixth-term Rep. John F. Hennessy, admits that the issue has died from neglect and outright opposition.

And Hennessy, a Democrat like the city's entire delegation, has an unlikely ally on the issue in Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield.

Hennessy said he will keep the bill alive as a possible amendment, which could be attached to legislation even vaguely related to the issue, between now and the adjournment.

And on Wednesday afternoon, McKinney offered similar legislation as an amendment on a bill before the Senate, forcing Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney to use a parliamentary maneuver to halt debate and at least temporarily shelve the underlying bill.

The genesis of the controversy is the Bridgeport City Charter, which prohibits city workers from serving on the City Council, which also acts as the local tax board. City attorneys, however, cite a state law that allows the five city employees who are council members, to remain.

Hennessy's bill would eliminate the state exception. He says that the City Charter should be obeyed.

"The bill has no life," Hennessy said Thursday. "I have been told the Bridgeport delegation has no consensus of support... I think this is one of the reasons why Bridgeport is in the doldrums. I didn't think it was going to turn things around, but it would be a step in the right direction."

McKinney, in a phone interview Thursday, said he will present his amendment any time he can between now and June 5. "I think it's important to get a vote on this," McKinney said.

"I haven't always agreed with Rep. Hennessy, but he's right with this one," McKinney said. "I know he's fighting an uphill battle. As someone who supports his bill and is in the Senate, I wanted to make it known that this bill is important to me. If people don't like the amendment, they can vote no. I view the bill as a way for the city charter to prevail."

"I can understand both sides of the argument, but I'm going to reserve comment to see if there's a compromise," Clemons said in a phone interview.

Sen. Andres Ayala Jr., the leader of the city's legislative delegation, opposes the bill, giving it little chance for passage in the Senate.

Third-term Rep. Auden Grogins, D-Bridgeport, a co-sponsor of the bill, says she still supports it, but Hennessy probably has to do more work. "I think Jack needs to talk to people about supporting it."

But Sharkey said the bill seems lifeless.

"The legislation currently lacks the support of the delegation from the city most affected -- Bridgeport," he said Thursday. "This has essentially halted the bill from moving forward."

Mary-Jane Foster, a former mayoral candidate and a member of Citizens for a Better Bridgeport, who supports Hennessy and Grogins' bill, said that having city employees on the council, which votes on budgets and taxes, is an obvious conflict of interest.

"I'm very disappointed in our delegation," she said in a phone interview. "It's time to stand up and do the right thing. If it doesn't pass this year, we come back next year."